Ever heard the phrase “felt alone in the world in the middle of a crowd” before? If you understand the saying, you will understand exactly how I felt today.
As we re-packed for our Mwanza flight, I listened to my Swahili lessons on my iPod and practiced as much as I possibly could. I read my language books, and tried to memorize as many phrases as my little brain could hold. I figure, I still have some more time before I need to really know this! As we walked to the airport, the heat beat down on my body and I wondered if I was ever to get used to this human bake-fest. It was so hot that if my toes had been kernels of corn, we would have made a lot of popcorn (that one was for you Jamie).
Now, imagine yourselves back in a 1950’s flick about flying, and you can find yourself in the same place I was today. We walked outside of the airport to get to the small airplane carrying us over to Mwanza. I had heard that these smaller planes are a bit more turbulent, and while the physics of the situation made sense, this fact did not register until I found myself holding my breath. There was a nice 10 second block of time (that felt like minutes) when the airplane took a couple of small, but well established dips. All that my wonderful friend sitting next to me could do was laugh at the strangled armrests within my fists and the beacon of light that was my face as all the blood rushed towards it. All was worth it though.
As we landed at the Mwanza airport, the scenery was spectacular. The vegetation seemed to go on for miles and miles, and somehow, we were right in the middle of all this natural beauty (with added clumps of airplane exhaust). I finally was able to experience firsthand the need to squat in order to use the restroom; I will one day have the leg power to this with no difficulty, but for now, as a novice, all I could do was laugh at my sad attempt.
While I will not bore you with the details of the next hours, I will retell the story of our little adventure that led to the beginning of this story. As it was time to prepare for dinner, Jamie, Adam and I decided to go grocery shopping in Mwanza. What we did not know was that this would be one of the truly exhausting days in our wonderful journey. Our very sweet driver understood very little English and I, well “nifahamu Kiswahili kidogo” (I understand Swahili a little), but not enough to venture in the city on my own. As we are well prepared graduate students, we cleverly packed our Swahili dictionary and phrase book and a wonderful head lamp just in case.
Our first stop, the small U-Turn “grocery-store” that sold no actual groceries! Not to worry, we found some nice crackers and other snacks to entertain us. The next stop, the restaurant to pick up food for our starving friends, and this is where it all went down-hill for us!
Everything we wanted to express to our driver was first looked up in the dictionary. Once we thought we had successfully communicated, we found ourselves being driven to locations that technically we had asked for, but not the one we wanted. We stopped at three places before we could finally find someone willing to sell us the requested food. What was so special about this place you ask? Simple, they spoke English and noticed our lost and confused bodies wandering the streets with a Swahili book in our hands! Who knew ordering grilled chicken could be so hard. We spoke and all we got were blank stares. “Was it our accent? Did we say the wrong word? But, I know that this is the word because it is what the dictionary says it should be! Why can’t they understand?” All these tumultuous feelings slowly barricaded me into a corner and I wondered if I was ever to find someone who could feed me that night.
Was it really that serious? Probably not, but when you find yourself surrounded by hundreds of people and maybe only one of them can partially understand you, you feel like it is. Needless to say, we had a nice laugh at the end and managed to get our wonderful food. Now, how do we tell the driver to take us home? Start the whole process again, and hope that you managed to learn something useful in order to survive!
Please do not be alarmed, I am a drama queen at times, and while this is how I felt, I know that the three of us managed to get home and even know, I can laugh at the 25 year old woman who felt like a 2 year old girl learning to speak for the first time in her life. I have a few weeks to grow and I know I can improve. Can’t wait until my next outing.

First Full Day

Today was HOT. We have now visited a couple of very nice places, and were able to meet with Dorcas; a very nice welcome. We have a lot of work to do! I cannot wait to get started; it was inspiring hearing her talk to us about the work CARE has already done in TZ.

The food has been great so far. I cannot recall the names of any of the dishes, but I can assure you they were delectable. And, they have Mangoes everywhere!!!! I am truly enjoying that experience.

The Driving: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! We are going to crash!!!!!!!!"
That is what I am thinking just about every second I am in a car here. Traffic lights really have no full effect on the driving here. Also, they do not stick to their lanes and it always looks like we are going to have a head on collision, but none to report (so far).

Pictures are soon to come. I am just waiting until I do not look dead tired to post!

We take flight

It was finally Friday morning and I was actually on a plane to Tanzania. The flight into Amsterdam was a rough and long, and I dreaded the next long flight. The Amsterdam airport is a beautiful airport, and there is a danger of me shopping A LOT once I fly back home. As we boarded the next flight, I feared another 8 hours of discomfort. To my surprise, this flight seemed so much shorter and was absolutely pleasant. The food was AMAZING (I believe I gained weight just from the flight food) and the entertainment was, well, entertaining.

In case you wanted to know:
1. I have now watched:
-The Prestige
-You, Me and Dupree
-Jane Eyre
-Beauty and the Beast
-The Break Up
-The Devil Wears Prada
2. I only slept 1 hr on my whole trip.
3. It was STICKY, HOT when we finally got in to Nairobi

In Preparation

It is Wednesday, February 21, 2007 and I am less than 48 from the beginning of what I can only assume will be one of the major adventures of my life.

I leave for Tanzania on Friday, and I am a bundle of mixed feelings. I am extremely excited about exploring something amazingly different; I am nervous because I am entering "new territory," very unfamiliar territory; I am sad because I will be leaving my loved ones for a long time, and I cannot wait to start this true SAFARI.